How Did the Peppers Do?

We have had decent pepper production this year, although I think that the break in production was more attributable to nutrient deficiency rather than the summer heat. We had some nice peppers early, then they stopped for a few weeks, and now we are getting lots of nice peppers again. It may have been both issues resulted in the smaller peppers and lesser production across the board.

Giant Marconi – Good producer, but the plants got a little leggy. The peppers weren’t as large as I thought they maybe should be.

Early Sunsation – This variety had much smaller peppers than last year, and they took a long time to size up. (Of course, we may not have been patient enough to wait for them to get bigger too!) The yield wasn’t great either, although better than last year, when we were trying to leave the peppers on the plant to get them to turn yellow.

El Jefe Jalapeno

El Jefe Jalapeno – This pepper was a great producer! We had plenty of jalapenos all summer, and the size of the peppers was maybe slightly small, but very good overall.

Banana – Again, smaller peppers than I expected, and a much lower yield than last year.

Yummy Snack – I was so disappointed in this variety! I’ve heard great reports about it, but after a few

Yummy Snack Pepper

small peppers early in the season, it hasn’t really resumed production. Maybe it requires very high fertility to be productive?

Big Jim Chile – Like the Giant Marconi, this was a good producer, but not great. The peppers were all good sized though.

Sapporo Hot and Yatsufusa Peppers

Sapporo Hot – This Asian hot pepper was very productive! The flavor was a little more floral than a serrano would be, which was nice. We have enough dried peppers to make stirfry all winter!

Yatsufusa – Similar to a Thai Chili, this pepper was both ornamental and productive. Again, lots of dried hot peppers to go around!

Shishito – This sweet-hot green pepper was kind of confusing. While it was quite productive, I never really figured out what to do with it. The walls were very thin, and it always tasted kind of green and unripe. Maybe I missed out by not trying it in tempura, as the catalog suggested.

I picked up a “habanero” at Valley Feed that turned out to be an ornamentalish… small, upright fruits, hot as the dickens. Don’t know if it was a confused hybrid, or a mislabeled plant, or what.

When all the other peppers (gypsy, jalapeño, ancho/poblano, cayenne, Hungarian wax, Cali Wonder bell, and eventually a real habanero) were dropping blossoms from heat/dryness, it kept producing… not a lot, but regularly. Unfortunately, no one could figure out what to do with them… they approach habanero in heat, but not flavor.

Apart from that, I kept the other plants alive, but that was about it. They’re all blossoming now, but I don’t know if I’ll get anything out of most of them.